Maria Elena Duron | chief buzz agent: Being Consistent In Your Brand Doesn't Mean Be Annoying

[Maria Elena Duron]

My RSS Feed shares consistent personal brand related topics. Maria Elena Duron has Just Posted the Following on her blog:

Fifteen. Fifteen status updates on one day between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. on a Facebook business page gives the perception you’re a “home stream” or “newsfeed” hog and people will either not “like” you or they’ll hide your updates – either way it defeats the purpose.

Fifteen is good – even low to normal on Twitter. Fifteen would overwhelm everyone on LinkedIn and on Facebook it evokes the use of the HIDE button on all of your updates.

Brand consistency is important. Consistently reflecting your values and valuables in your brand is important. Any form of disconnection from that will call cause brand confusion and even distrust. And, when people do connect with you, be constant in reflecting your brand attributes. Yet, you do not need to constantly have your brand in people’s face.

Social media (or my choice phrase is social networks) is just that – social. While advertising’s focus might be to drive home a message, networking’s focus is to develop a relationship. What happens to either of these is quite different in the social networking world.

So, while “head on apply directly to the forehead” might work in the clutter of television and radio advertising – it would be off putting for people in a social networking situation. If you think of online social networking, much like a virtual recreation of what happens in actual face-to-face networking event (only with cooler communication tools), you’ll find the frame of mind in which to engage others.

Hogging someone’s Facebook newsfeed, when they’re trying to read it to catch up on the happenings of their friends, is just like being that person at the networking event whose constantly in your face, won’t let you speak to others and even drives new contacts away. They talk incessantly and always about themselves and then they ask questions but never really wait for or want an answer –it’s merely a ploy to link to the next topic.

Sadly, I witnessed that this weekend for an organization doing that exact thing on Facebook.

Do you want to be someone that’s seen as a great connector or a sales-y in your face hog?

Here are some helpful rules of thumb:

1. Look at your update for any social network and see if it sounds like it’s “on brand”.
Refrain from posting something, anywhere, just for the sake of posting- make sure it’s meaningful. Does it reflect your brand? Does it reflect positively on you? Is it a message you wouldn’t mind repeated to your next client, your supervisor or your mom?
If you’re doing a special promotion or conversation, then just warn your fan base – communication is key. In this number, I’m referring to actual updates not comments on comments. Making a comment about a comment someone made on your page is a conversation and that exchange is just that “an exchange” so there must be a two-way conversation.

Remember, the goal is for your messages to go viral. They cannot go viral if people hide them or un-“like” you.

3. On Twitter, go hog-wild. You must have several updates in order to stay on top of the “twitter stream” to even be seen.
Yet, if you do participate or moderate a Twitter chat, do warn your followers so they know that you’re not always in “rapid fire tweeting” mode. A simple tweet like,“Hi all! I’m jumping into a chat 4 nxt hr – I will be noisy. Hope U find value in the tweets!” This gives them at least a “heads-up” that this kind of high velocity tweeting will only be for the next hour and it warns them with enough time to disconnect their mobile phone from alerting them every time you tweet.
4. On LinkedIn, my personal thoughts are on once or twice a day on status updates and then a whole lot of answering and asking of questions along with participation in groups. I’ll defer to my esteemed colleague, Jason Alba, author of “I’m on LinkedIn – Now What?” as he knows that network well and more specifically provide greater direction there.

What else do you suggest or have you seen work?

Maria Elena Duron, Chief Engagement Officer (CEO) of buzz2bucks | word of mouth marketing firm, broadens the network of busy people through effective social marketing strategies. buzz2bucks.com provides online profile management services, social management and reputation management - helping key employees to establish higher visibility and provide consistency in branding as well as establishing the expertise in their industry for entrepreneurs.


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Thanks for the shout out Maria - I just responded on my blog:

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